October 25, 2016: Readers weigh in on Trump vs Clinton

It was during the Clinton/ Obama watch that US foreign policy sadly became the laughingstock of the world.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
With regard to “Woe is us” (Observations, October 21), apparently, I am the anti-Steve Rabinowitz (whose service in the Bill Clinton White House greatly colors and slants his comments).
If Hillary Clinton is elected, the amount of corruption we can look forward to will be enormous. Her party and her personal story are awash in such. She will continue as she started. If corruption, continual lying to the public, exposing sensitive information, hiding instead of admitting her security breaches, and forcing us here in Israel to retreat to our pre- 1967 boundaries makes her “arguably the most qualified person ever to have run for the office,” then indeed woe is us.
I can only conclude that Mr.
Rabinowitz is so blinded by his past that he cannot objectively look at this election.
If, as he illogically asserts, Donald Trump has shown “a fundamental misunderstanding of Russia and Syria, of Korea... [and] of Ukraine,” why is it that the US and Russia are in a new cold war? Why has the Syrian conflict become an absolute humanitarian crisis? Why does North Korea flaunt its military prowess? Why was Ukraine invaded? Was this due to Trump’s influence? To point any kind of finger at Trump is a total breach of logic.
Whose policies, based on misunderstanding each and every one of these situations, led to these abysmal failures? They emerged during Mrs. Clinton’s service as secretary of state or under a president she has supported in foreign affairs.
It was during the Clinton/ Obama watch that US foreign policy sadly became the laughingstock of the world. It was on that watch that we saw them misunderstand the nature of the Middle East and eastern Europe. Given this concrete track record, what can we expect next time around? D. FRIEDMAN Jerusalem The writer was a Democratic Party district delegate in 1972 who later left the party “after experiencing a great waning of trust in the controlling people – who certainly include both Bill and Hillary Clinton, whom I saw as embodying what an autocratic elitism looks like.”
Notwithstanding “Woe is us,” in which Steve Rabinowitz heaps praise upon Hillary Clinton, I for one cannot forget when, during a meeting she had with Suha Arafat in 1999, she remained passively silent when Arafat accused Israel of poisoning wells and thus killing Palestinians.
Clinton’s unwillingness to stand up against such blatant lies and calumny flies in the face of Rabinowitz’s claim of her “proven support for Israel.”
DAVID S. ADDLEMAN
Mevaseret Zion
In two weeks, the American electorate will decide whether to continue the status quo or change the direction of the Obama presidency. Though Americans are not particularly enthusiastic about either choice, a decision – which will have international implications – must be made.
Tal Harris (“Trump or Clinton: The Israeli interest,” Comment & Features, October 20) opines that Clinton would be the lesser of two evils. I disagree. In previous US elections, there were only subtle differences between the Republican and Democratic candidates. Not so this election.
As I see it, a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for a deceitful, corrupt, liberal, establishment candidate who unabashedly touts 30 years of public service but has little to show for her efforts; who is content with the unpopular policies of Barack Obama and pledges to continue them; and who agreed to incorporate the leftist platform of her democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, including his pro-Palestinian slant.
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for an anti-establishment, apolitical, financially successful candidate who surrounds himself with strongly pro-Israel advisers, has disdain for political correctness and has a vision to turn America back to greatness.
ROBERT DUBLIN
Jerusalem
I am highly disappointed with Republican voters across the United States. According to national polls, over 70% of them believe the propaganda being put out by Donald Trump and his campaign staff about the upcoming election being rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton.
If Trump and his supporters actually believe the election is rigged, then they believe that fraud will occur in balloting across the country – in state after state, county after county, city after city and town after town. How absurd and un-American, for if such fraud occurs, then our voting system is subject to the same systemic fraud that occurs in Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba and other totalitarian countries. This cannot happen in the US. We have thousands of responsible, unbiased and honest election officials processing ballots.
Trump and his supporters are setting up the candidate’s loss to be blamed on a fictitious and salacious conspiracy theory.
And now he is saying he might not be willing to accept the results of the election if he loses. This is preaching anarchy.
DONALD MOSKOWITZ
Londonderry, New Hampshire
The writer is a registered Independent voter.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the US-Iran nuclear deal a “historic mistake.”
The deal made it possible for Iran to have access to $150 billion in frozen assets. It did not end Tehran’s nuclear weapons program; it allows the Iranians to acquire nuclear weapons in about a decade – assuming they don’t cheat in the interim.
The Obama administration provided sanctions relief to Iran that will allow foreign companies to do business with Iranian companies owned by senior figures in the Revolutionary Guard Corps who have been involved in crimes against humanity. It also agreed to remove sanctions on several Iranian banks involved in illegal activities.
The administration loosened restrictions on Iran’s ability to use US dollars in its business dealings, which will make it easier for Iran to transfer money for whatever purposes it chooses.
This concession, too, was not required by the nuclear deal, and days after it was announced, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels fired missiles at an American warship sailing off the coast of Yemen.
The Obama administration also secretly authorized a $1.7b.
cash ransom payment in exchange for American hostages held in Iran. This money will be used by Iran to fund its terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East, including Hamas and Hezbollah, which both seek to destroy Israel. The payment also created an incentive for Iran to take more hostages.
In addition, the administration has quietly dismantled a key part of the ballistic missile sanctions against Iran. Tehran’s ballistic missile program, according to the administration, was not supposed to be a part of the deal.
This is madness. This is insanity.
The president of the United States continues to make more and more concessions to the most antisemitic regime on the face of the earth. The Iran nuclear deal also represents a serious threat to American national security.
Candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, who support these outrageous policies, must be shunned, rejected and condemned. Why aren’t American Jews speaking out against these policies? Do they approve of them? Do they know about them? Do they care? I do. That’s why I am voting for Donald Trump. He and the entire Republican Party have been very critical of the nuclear deal, the ransom payment and all the secret side-deals and concessions that Congress and the American people were never informed of.
It is time to stop these dangerous policies. Vote for Donald Trump!
DAN FEINREICH
Atlanta, Georgia